December 7 remains elections day – Electoral Commission

The date for Ghana’s Presidential and Parliamentary elections remains December 7 and has not changed, the Electoral Commission has said.

The confirmation quells all speculation that the elections will be held on November 7.

The commission, however, clarified that November 7 would be the new date for all subsequent general elections, as it prepared to set in motion the process to have the current date changed.

“Although the EC is in favour of the change in date, we don’t intend to do so this year,” Chairperson of the EC, Mrs Jean Mensa, said.

Amendment

In the run-up to the 2016 elections, there were plans to change the voting day from December 7 to November 7 to allow for smooth transitions from one government to another.

The EC has started the process to amend Article 112 (4) of the 1992 Constitution, which will allow it to change the date of elections from December 7 to November 7.

Process

Providing further insight into the issue, a Deputy Chairperson of the EC in charge of Operations, Mr Samuel Tettey, said to enable the EC to amend the law, it had to write to the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice justifying why it needed to change the date.

Following that, he explained, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice would initiate a bill for the appropriate amendment, with the requisite justification.

He said the bill would also have to go through the requisite parliamentary process, after which two-thirds of Members of Parliament would have to vote in favour of the amendment.

He further explained that once Parliament approved of the amendment, the EC would then go ahead to begin the processes to change its calendar and programmes to be in tune with the new date.

Background

Calls for general elections to come off one month earlier than the current date has been fuelled by the closeness of the December 7 date to the transition period from one administration to the next.

Proponents of the November 7 date argued that in the event of a run-off, there would be adequate time for such an election and smooth handover processes.

In the 2000 and 2008 general election, there was a second run-off on December 28, 2000, after the December 7 elections produced no first-round winner. That was 10 days before the swearing-in of the President-elect.

It took barely a week for the transition process from one government to another.

Calendar

Per the EC’s interim calendar of activities, it will begin the compilation of a new voters register for the 2020 elections from April 18 to May 30, 2020.

According to the calendar, it would deploy 8,000 registration devices to cover the 32,000 polling stations across the country.

The commission intends to mount a voter register exhibition from August 15 to August 28, this year.

It estimates that the registration process, the exhibition of the register and adjudication on challenges raised will all end by October 26, this year.

Adjudication and correction

The EC will also make room for people challenging the identities of others on the register, a process known as objection adjudication and correction, which will take place between October 1 and 9, this year, while the authentication of the register by revising officers will take place between October 12 and 15, this year.

In 2012, the register was authenticated between September 25 and 30, 2012, with the 2016 exercise taking place from October 6 to 10.

The receipt of nominations from presidential and parliamentary candidates will be done between October 5 and 9, this year.

The exercise was conducted from October 17 to 19 in 2012 and between August 29 and 30 in the last election four years ago.

This will pave the way for the submission of the final voters register to all political parties on November 4, this year, as was the case in 2012 and 2016 when it was done within the first week of November.

The processes will enable the EC to dispatch copies of the register to all constituencies by November 8, this year.